NYPD Is Promoting iOS 7’s Security Features In Effort To Reduce Crime

According to reports, it sounds like the New York Police Department is a big fan of Apple’s latest release. The NYPD apparently has sent officers out on the street to distribute fliers encouraging iPhone owners to upgrade to the phone’s new operating system. The new software, iOS 7, has new security features designed to cut down on theft.

The message of the NYPD flyer reads: “By downloading the new operating system, should your device get lost or stolen, it cannot be reprogrammed without an Apple ID or password.”

If they are lost or stolen, devices running iOS 7 can be remotely secured so that a device's associated Apple ID and password must be entered before it can be wiped and used again, The Verge reported.

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The NYPD hopes that the new security features will help reduce crime in the city. "Apple picking" is one of the main reasons that New York City's annual crime rate rose for the first time in two decades last year.

“At launch the iPhone 5S fingerprint reader will only support unlocking the device and Apple ID logins,” said John Smith, a security architect at Veracode. “This does raise the bar for users who don’t currently have a device unlock password but enterprise users will already be required to use either a PIN or password to unlock their device so the improvement will be less significant for them. What remains to be seen is whether fingerprint authentication will be extended over time to protect access to the most sensitive information on the device such as corporate email.”